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Mounds View Festival in the Park - August 16, 2014

Irondale High School Marching Knights entertained the crowd that gathered for Mounds View’s parade last year.

The New Brigthon Ambassadors took their float down the road in the annual Mounds View celebration last year.

Boy Scout Troop 367 was one of the participants in the parade last year.

The Mounds View Lions Club was grilling up good eats at last year’s Festival in the Park.

“Elvis in the Park”

Mounds View’s annual city celebration, the Festival in the Park, is Aug. 16 in City Hall Park, 2401 County Rd. 10, behind Mounds View City Hall.

The Festival, now well into its fourth decade, features fireworks, food, drinks, a car show, parade and a 5K run, giving the city, as Mayor Joe Flaherty said at a June city council meeting, “an opportunity to celebrate itself.”

Festival committee president, Theresa Cermak, said this year’s event will feature a special theme that you can’t help falling in love with: Elvis Presley.

“It’s the anniversary of his death, so we picked that theme for this year,” Cermak said, adding that a number of special Elvis tie-ins are planned for the event including Elvis karaoke, Elvis trivia and possibly even an Elvis-themed ice cream flavor. Elvis, revered by many as the “King of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” died Aug. 16, 1977.

Grab your hound dog and all your friends and come down to the Festival in the Park to get all shook up while dancing to classics like “Jailhouse Rock,” “Heartbreak Hotel,” and “Don’t be Cruel.”

But the hunk of burning love won’t be the only celebrity on peoples’ minds at Festival in the Park.

“We have a local resident who acts as Jack Sparrow, so he’s been invited,” Cermak added. “Jack Sparrow meets Elvis Presley.”

The first event of this year’s Festival is the Mounds View Fun Run 5K at Silver View Park at 7:30 a.m. Staged by the Mounds View Community Center and Mounds View YMCA, those who preregister for the race prior to Aug. 14 will get an early-bird rate of $25; race-day registration is $35. Proceeds from the race go to the YMCA scholarship program, which supports Mounds View area families. To register, go to www.active.com and search for “Mounds View 5K Fun Run,” or register in person at the Mounds View Community Center, or call 763-717-4040 for more information.

Following the race, activity moves full time to City Hall Park, where the Festival’s car show will run from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with its trophy presentation at 2 p.m. Veteran monster truck USA-1 will be on display at the Car Show, and DJ Charles Anthony Brost & Tunes To Go will be spinning music nearby.

The Festival in the Park Parade begins at 10 a.m., running a route from the community center on Bronson Drive, up Long Lake Road, across County Road I, down Quincy Street and back onto Bronson. Jim Erickson from BOB FM will take part in the parade, and will be doing live remotes for the radio from the festival grounds.

“[Erickson] is a very nice man and they do a nice job,” Cermak said. “They’ll be at the car show, doing some stuff there too.”

With the added publicity that BOB FM will bring to the Festival, broadcasting live from the event, Cermak hopes to boost attendance for 2014.

“We plan on record-setting attendance, so we’ll see what we get,” she said.

Along with the parade, much of the Festival kicks off at 10 a.m. as well: health screenings go until 2 p.m., the craft show until 6 p.m., games until 7 p.m. and food until dusk.

From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., the Spring Lake Park-Blaine-Mounds View Fire Department will be on hand. “The fire department will be doing bucket rides and there will be a whole area for fire safety that people will want to explore,” Cermak said.

At 1 p.m., there will be a police K9 demo. “Kids really like it; adults really like it, they like to see what the canine officers are doing,” Cermak said.

The beer tent will be open from noon to 9:30 p.m., karaoke with many Elvis song options goes from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m., and Jonah and the Whales will perform from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.

At 9:40 p.m., fireworks will signal the end of Mounds View Festival in the Park 2014, reminding Cermak, who has been involved with the event for 21 years (and is always looking for more volunteers), of why she stays involved.

“Every year I say this is going to be my last,” Cermak said. “And then you watch the fireworks and you say ‘we could do this, and we could do that,’ and then you’re signed up again.”